Now OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been found to have violated copyright law, according to a German court. It didn’t get the licensable musical work cleared. The ruling established an important precedent across Europe. It was the outcome of a lawsuit brought by GEMA, the collective that administers music rights in Germany, last December.
The court found that OpenAI had infringed the copyright when training its language models. This would have included licensed music, and OpenAI did not receive the necessary authorizations from the rights holders. This notable decision demonstrates just one of the powerful legal challenges currently in the works against AI companies. They wrestle with implications of utilizing copyrighted works to form their training datasets.
GEMA’s chief executive, Tobias Holzmüller, expressed satisfaction with the court’s ruling, emphasizing its importance for creators. He stated, “Today, we have set a precedent that protects and clarifies the rights of authors: even operators of AI tools such as ChatGPT must comply with copyright law.”
The ruling is part of what GEMA is calling the “first landmark AI ruling in Europe.” Implications of this legal victory could reverberate throughout Europe. Generationally, it lays out a significant precedent for the interplay between emerging AI technologies and copyright laws, first in Germany, but quickly expanding its impact across the continent.
OpenAI isn’t the only one fighting — or attacking, in GEMA’s case — on the bad GEMA home front. The company is now embroiled in numerous lawsuits filed by composers, directors and various media organizations. Among the plaintiffs are heavy-hitters such as Studio Ghibli and other major Japanese publishers. These lawsuits share a common theme: the alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted works to train AI models.
As AI technologies continue to rapidly develop and become more embedded across all sectors, the issue of copyright compliance becomes increasingly pressing. The German court ruling already may have established an important precedent. It will have an impact on impending global cases involving AI and copyright disputes.